Red Tape Relapse : Licensing ‘Glitch’ Could Delay Opening of Olive View Again

County officials are preparing to open Olive View Medical Center in Sylmar and begin admitting patients at 7 a.m. Saturday, despite a bureaucratic “glitch” holding up the issuance of the hospital’s operating license.

The announcement Wednesday by hospital Administrator Douglas Bagley came several days after he was told by the state Department of Health Services that the $120-million Los Angeles County hospital had passed its final licensing inspection.

Late Wednesday, however, as vans were moving furniture from the county’s aging Mid-Valley Hospital in Van Nuys to Olive View, confusion reigned about the status of the state license.

Jaqueline Lincer, district administrator of the state’s Licensing and Certification Division, said her office had not received clearances from several state agencies, including the state architect and the Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development.

Need Clearances

“It’s a glitch, and I don’t know if anything will come of it,” Lincer said. “But a license will not be granted until we get all the clearances.”

It was not clear Wednesday, Lincer said, whether more hospital inspections will be needed to receive the clearance, or if it is just a case of assembling paper work. Bagley said officials from Sacramento will arrive in Los Angeles today to settle the matter.

Under state law, the hospital cannot open until a written permit is issued.

The last-minute delay comes after three weeks of extensive state inspections of the 350-bed, six-story hospital and more than a year after the original opening date was postponed by problems with the air-handling system.

Hospital administrators were confident, however, that the final licensing hurdle will be cleared before Saturday.

Buoyed by the verbal go-ahead given by state officials last Friday, Bagley said there was no apparent reason not to go ahead with the long-charted plan to close Mid-Valley and open Olive View.

“We had no inkling that this sort of problem would occur,” Bagley said. “We felt there was no need to wait further and we wanted to move in a soon as possible.”

Patients Notified

On Saturday, about 6,000 letters were mailed to outpatients notifying them that, beginning May 12, all appointments will be at Olive View in Sylmar.

Monday and Tuesday, pamphlets and flyers announcing the hospital’s move were posted throughout Mid-Valley.

Wednesday, workers hung two big blue banners outside the hospital and clinic announcing, “We’re Moving to Sylmar May 9th.” Medical records and laboratories have already moved to Olive View.

Mid-Valley Hospital stopped admitting patients for elective surgery Wednesday. Only emergency patients will be admitted in an effort to reduce the number of patients from 120 to about 80 for the Saturday move.

Saturday, about 16 paramedic ambulances will transfer patients accompanied by nurses and doctors from Mid-Valley to Olive View. Outpatient clinics will open Tuesday.

If the licensing problem has not been settled by late Friday, Bagley said, patients will remain at Mid-Valley Hospital. If the problem continues until Tuesday, he said, outpatients with appointments will have to be notified by telephone.